Kevin Bettinghouse, born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1960, served in the U.S. Air Force from 1978 to 1982 as a Ground Navigational Aid. After his basic training at Lackland Air Force base in Texas, Kevin spent eight months receiving technical...

Loren Brand entered the Marine Corps in 1966, and attended college at Michigan State University and North Texas University. He was trained in aviation and served in the Vietnam War as a helicopter pilot. After the war he became an FBI agent.

Mary Lou Caden (née Studnicka) was born in Oak Lawn, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. She grew up in the Oak Lawn area and started playing softball with the neighborhood kids and transitioned to playing for local teams. She played as a short-stop in...

James Crowell is a WW II veteran who served in the United States Navy from November 1942 to February 1946 in the South Pacific. In this interview, Crowell shares with great detail his time in combat, including the Battle of Leyte Gulf, dogfights...

Mike Davis joined the Air Force in 1973 after completing the 4-year ROTC program in college. He served in Active Duty as a Pilot Instructor and later went into the Air National Guard during the Cold War. He retired from the Guard in 2000 but...

Richard Drury was born in 1950 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He received his draft notice shortly after finishing high school in 1969. He did his Army basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and then advanced training for airborne at Fort Gordon, Georgia,...

Keith Edmondson was born in 1924 in Wheaton, Illinois, and grew up in nearby Glen Ellyn. After graduating from high school, Edmondson began attending Purdue University the following fall, which was where he heard about the Aviation Cadet Program,...

William Ewing enlisted in the Air Force Reserves before the beginning of WW II and remained in the Reserves until 1984. During WW II he flew the A-20 Avenger out of New Guinea and later the Philippines before returning home after completing his...